Haig, Douglas

CountryFrance

Town:Montreuil-sur-Mer

Year of creation:1931

Rider(s):Haig, Douglas

(1861-1928), 1st Earl Haig was a British senior officer during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 to the end of the War. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme (the battle with the highest casualties in British military history), the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice in 1918. Although a popular commander during the immediate post-war years, with his funeral becoming a day of national mourning, Haig has since the 1960’s become an object of criticism for his leadership during World War I. Some dub him “Butcher Haig” for the two million British casualties under his command, and regard him as representing the mere concept of class based incompetent commanders, claiming that he was unable to grasp modern tactics and technologies. However, many veterans praise Haig’s leadership, and since the 1980’s academic historians have argued that British forces under his command did, in fact, adopt new tactics and technologies and that the high casualties suffered were a function of the military realities of the time. Haig was made a Field Marshal in 1917.